Grilling foods is extremely popular among outdoor enthusiasts. Hunters, campers, hikers, and mountain climbers often grill their food because grilling is well suited for outdoor use and can make use of fuels that are readily available in nature. However, the grills used for backyard barbecues are too heavy and bulky to be suitable for use by campers, hikers, and the like. These types of outdoor enthusiasts need grills that are lightweight and compact. For this reason portable grills have been proposed in the art, yet are still too bulky and cumbersome for travel on long trips.
In recent years, portable radiant heaters have become very popular for outdoor camping. The heaters take the place of messy and dangerous campfires and typically comprise one or more arrays of gas operated, ceramic burners which are usually mounted within highly polished reflector units. The ceramic burners are often directly connected to small portable propane tanks, so that the entire assemblage can be readily moved from place to place to provide highly concentrated localized heat. The heating units require no electricity, they are safe, silent and odorless in operation and require no warm-up time.
The portable heater can be fitted with a cooking accessory that can be directly connected to the radiant heater unit so that the unit can be used not only as a source of warming but also to conveniently cook various kinds of food. For example, foods such as steaks, fish, chicken and the like can be securely clamped between cooking racks that comprise a part of the cooking apparatus. However, none of the references cited below teach or suggest the unique structural features of the portable grill rack of the present invention.
Devices have been disclosed in the prior art that relate to racks attachable to space heaters. These include devices that have been patented and published in patent application publications. These devices generally relate to portable heating devices that include a collapsible rack thereon. For example, U.S. Pat. Nos. 8,304,700 and 6,131,560 relate to collapsible racks that may be folded, stored and transported adjacent with, and supported by the portable space heater. Other patents relate to a collapsible basket attachment, such as U.S. Pat. No. 2,048,769.
These prior art devices have several known drawbacks. The prior art devices relate to a combination heater and rack. Repeatedly moving and adjusting the rack coupled to the heater may be time consuming and inconvenient. Further, such devices may not be suited for removably attaching to the heater and do not include a combination heating plate and cross members disposed on the rack.
In light of the devices disclosed in the prior art, it is submitted that the present invention substantially diverges in design elements from the prior art and consequently it is clear that there is a need in the art for an improvement to existing grill attachments for portable heaters. In this regard the instant invention substantially fulfills these needs.